Alma 18:36, 1830 Ed

[Log]

In reading the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, I ran into this curiously ungrammatical passage:

Now, when Ammon had said these words, he began

to

the creation of the world, and also

to

the creation of Adam...

Of what grammatical significance are the two "to"s here? In natural usage of English, we would expect them to read "at," as follows:

Now, when Ammon had said these words, he began

at

the creation of the world, and also

at

the creation of Adam...

Is this usage of "to" perhaps a translation artifact? It caught my eye because once is likely an accident, perhaps an error introduced by the printer or an uneducated translator, but twice in a row seems less plausibly attributed to error unless Joseph was given to making this particular substitution of "to" for "at."

Edited April 19, 2012 by Log

[David T]

In reading the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, I ran into this curiously ungrammatical passage:

Now, when Ammon had said these words, he began

to

the creation of the world, and also

to

the creation of Adam...

Of what grammatical significance are the two "to"s here? In natural usage of English, we would expect them to read "at," as follows:

Now, when Ammon had said these words, he began

at

the creation of the world, and also

at

the creation of Adam...

Is this usage of "to" perhaps a translation artifact? It caught my eye because once is likely an accident, perhaps an error introduced by the printer or an uneducated translator, but twice in a row seems less plausibly attributed to error unless Joseph was given to making this particular substitution of "to" for "at."

Loos to me like you might read it as intending something like this, "Now, when Ammon had said these words, he began [on] to [speaking of] the creation of the world, and also [on] to the creation of Adam."

Discussing direction of moving forward in his discourse [to], not in location of the story element [at].